How to Pitch Like an AEO Pro

Vol: 210 - Because AI Is Now the Gatekeeper of Your Brand Story

HelloZ

I promised you a post today about how publicist professionals need to start thinking about their pitches. Yesterday’s post talked all about SEO vs AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) reviewing AEO, including what PR pros need to be doing now that we’re living in this world. If you missed it, it’s def a precursor to the below, so peep that first.

Shall we get right into it?

There was a time when the pitch we’d write had one goal: Convince a journalist, editor, or blogger that our story was worth telling.

Now? We also have to convince machines. Specifically, the AI-powered “answer engines” like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot that sift through billions of data points to decide what gets said when someone asks a question.

This means our pitch has a new audience:

• The human who can write about you.

• The AI that decides if you’re worth including in its response.

Welcome to AEO pitching. Grab a seat at my kitchen table and let’s learn more about how we’re going to do this. Following the jump, I’ll tell you:

• All about the AEO mindset

• What elements you need for a good AEO-friendly pitch

• An example of what a good before and after looks like

• A checklist you’ll want to print out and put by your comp.

• Most importantly, we’re going to end with why this all matters anyway.

LFG!